Double gusseted valve bags



E. LANDELL 2,811,300

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

MWM'MM B L PF Oct. 29, 1957 DOUBLE GUSSETED VALVE." BAGS Filed Jan. 6, 1955 Oct. 29,1957 E. LANDELL 2,811,300

DOUBLE GUSSETED VALVE BAGS Filed Jan. 6, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Oct. 29, 1957' E. LANDELL DOUBLE GUSSETED VALVE BAGS 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Jan. 6, 1955 IN V EN TOR. ERNEST [AA/DELL.

ATTOKA/EKT.

United States DOUBLE GUSSETED VALVE BAGS Ernest Landell, Temple City, -Calif., assignor to St. Regis Paper Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York This invention relates to paper bags, and the features therof, among other possibilities, are more particularly adapted for use in multiwall paper shipping sacks formed with pluralities of gussets at each side and preferably of the sewn-end valved type.

A very widely used type of multiwall gusseted sewnend paper valve bag is of the construction shown in patent to Bates et al., No. 1,752,292, granted April 1, 1930. While this type of valve bag has proven to be highly successful for its intended purposes, yet under some circumstances and for packing certain commodities it is desirable to provide bags which have exceptionally wide gussets, and yet if such unusually wide gussets are provided two serious .difiiculties, among others, will arise. First, the manner of forming and folding in the valves in bags of this type is such that excessively large valves will necessarily result with such wide gussets, and secondly, at the non-valved corners, the inwardly directed folds of the gussets at the points where same are caught within the sewn seams at the ends of the .bag will be spaced so far inwardly from the edges of the bag that when the bag is filled there will occur large reentrant cavities of wasted space and also these gusset folds provide wrinkled strained areas of weakness which will tend to pull out from the sewn seam.

In accordance with the present invention, the abovenoted difiiculties heretofore encountered with wide gusseted sewn-end bags are overcome by providing the bags at each side edge with pluralities of gussets all of which at the non-valved corners may be secured by the sewn seams effectively at points close enough to the bag edges so that no portions of the gussets tend to pull out, and in conjunction with such multiple gussets an improved valve construction is provided at the valve corner in such a way that the valve may be made of a reasonably limited size and which will still permit easy filling of the bag and secure closure of the valve even though the total gussest width may be much greater than heretofore attempted in practice.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear from the more detailed description given below, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which form a part of this specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view partly in vertical section showing a valve corner of an empty bag made in accord with the preferred form of the invention;

Figures 2 and 3, respectively, are perspective views showing two different stages in the method of folding in and forming a valve corner in accordance with the invention, prior to the application of the sewn-end closure;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a bag tube or length having multiple gusset folds at its sides in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the valve corner of the bag made in accordance with the invention and after same has been filled and the valve has been closed;

2,81 1,30 Patented Oct. 29, 1957 Figure 6 is a perspective view of a corner of a filled bag, other than the valve corner, made in accordance with the present invention; and

Figure 7 is a view similar to Fig. 1 except showing a corner of the bag other than the valve corner.

The novel valve corner construction as shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, will first be described, followed by an explanation of the various reasons for the features of this construction and the advantages thereof. As here shown, it will be understood that these figures illustrate one of the four corners of a bag, viz. the valve corner and that each vertical edge of the bag is formed with a pair of side-by-side gussets as at 12, 13. That is, gusset 12 is formed by two outer creases or folds 14, 15 and an inner crease or fold 16, and similarly the gusset 13 is formed by outer creases 15 and 17 and an inner crease or fold 18.

The term gusset as herein ued is to be understood as meaning a formation such as caused by creasing the paper at lines 14, 15 and 16, that is, so that there will be an inwardly directed area of paper folded over at one inner gusset fold as at 16. The term double gusset as used herein is to be understood as having reference to the side-by-side joined pair of such gussets, as shown at 12, 13 in the lower part of Fig. '2.

In forming the bag with the valve corner as an Fig. 2, webs of paper may be first run through a conventional bag tubing machinev to form a multiwall tube with a double gusset at each side'as shown at Fig. 4, such tube being cut into bag lengths, each with a socalled valve notch as at 20 at one corner, which is to form the valve corner. That is, such notch construction initially comprises an extension at the gusset areas at the valve corner so that when such area is turned in to form the valve, it will extend inwardly far enough to provide areas which will be caughtin the sewn seam of the finished bag and afford extra strength against any danger that the valve will pop out of place.

In order to form a valve on the bag length or. blank of Fig. 4, the paper areas at the notch corner, but at one of the gussets only, are first folded in along theusual diagonal lines 14', 15' either manually or by the use of wellknown valving apparatus so as to provide a valve formation in the top end of one gusset only as shown in Fig. 2. That is, the paper is so folded that the upper portion of the inner gusset crease 16 now extends horizontally outward as at 16a to a point 21 at the bottom outer edge of the valve, and then back horizontally along the line indicated at 16b to a point at 22 which is located at the middle of the lower inner corner of the valve. The portions which initially form the upper ends of the gusset creases 14, 15 now extend horizontally inward as at 14a, 15a. The portions which initially formed the protruding notch areas 20 of gusset 12 and which initially extend vertically (with the bag blank positioned as in Fig. 2) are now positioned to extend inwardly as at 20a. Thus the upper portion of one only of the gussets, for example gusset 12, will have a valve formed therein like the valve of said Bates et al. patent but the upper portions of the other gusset 13, which initially protruded upwardly at the corner to the extent indicated by the dotted lines at 23 (Fig. 3), will have to be disposed of in some manner. It will be understood that in the usual bag tubing machine, a socalled notch cutter is provided generally near the outlet end, which is adapted to cut the notch, but leave all plies of the gusset folds adjacent the valve corner, so that the gusset portions will remain protruding from the ends of all gusset portions. Now, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the valve per se as formed according to the invention is in only one of the two gussets, and thus the protruding notch portions at the end of the other gusset, as shown by dotted lines at 23 in Fig. 3, will have to be disposed of to avoid obstructing the application of a closure means to the end of the bag. While such notch portions 23 might be clipped off, for example along the level of dotted line 24 of Fig. 3, yet this would ordinarily involve a somewhat troublesome manual operation and there would still be a protruding triangular area as indicated at 25. Accordingly, with the preferred form of the invention, the upper outer corner of the gusset fold or crease of gusset 13 is swung downwardly and inwardly as indicated by the dotted arrow 26 and about a diagonal line 27 (embracing line 15') and so as to provide an area 28 lying flatwise against the inwardly directed valve area 29 in the valve. That is, area 28 will comprise the notch areas which formerly protruded from the gusset 13 together with the triangular area 25 above referred to. The upper portion of gusset 13 will now be permanently closed and in effect terminate at the point 30.

The areas 28, if desired, may be glued to the valve area 29. Also, if the contents of the bag should tend to sift into the crevices between the folds of gusset 13 at the region of diagonal line 27 or elsewhere and thence in any manner out from the bag, areas of adhesive such as at 31 may be applied to what were formerly the facing paper surface areas inside the upper portion of gusset 13.

With the parts folded as shown in Fig. 3, the bag end may then be collapsed and a folded-over closure tape of conventional form may be applied, as shown at 32 in Fig. 1, and secured in place by a sewn seam as indicated at 33, the stitches passing through all of the gusset portions located along a horizontal line spaced somewhat from the top of the bag as shown.

Usually, however, it will be desirable to provide the valve with a so-called sleeve which may be either of the inwardly directed extended valve fiap type as shown by the patent to Contryman, No. 2,378,285, granted June 12, 1945, or as shown in Fig. 1, such sleeve may be of the tuck-in type as shown by the patent to Redington, No, 1,754,769, granted April 15, 1930. In the latter case, the sleeve may comprise for example a creped paper supplemental sheet as indicated at 34 folded over along a median line 35 which forms the bottom edge of the finished sleeve and which extends along the bottom crease 16b of the valve. This supplemental sheet may extend inwardly as far as desired and be folded over about the inner edge of the valve flap to form a cuff as at 36. It will 1 be understood that the inner end portion of the sleeve and cuff will be not only folded about the inner end edge portions of the valve lip but also about the inner end edge of the area 28. The cuif areas may be secured by adhesive in the conventional way to the valve lip or flap portions and if desired the sleeve may also be adhered to the folded-over portion 28. It will further be understood that the upper edges of the supplemental sheet forming the sleeve are secured in the conventional way by the sewn seam 33. 7

After the bag has been filled as by introducing a filling spout through the sleeve 34, the gusset areas will have become extended as shown in Fig. and the outer end of the sleeve may be folded over and tucked in as at 38, into the upper end of the valve space which initially formed. the upper end of gusset 12. The upper end of gusset 13 will remain collapsed at point 30 as shown in Fig. 5, whereas the upper end of gusset 12 will be more or less spread apart at the valve areasas indicated at 40.

For packing many commodities such as cement and other powdery or granular materials: which are fairly; heavy, it is generally desirable to use a multiwall paper bag which when filled will form into a strong fiat package of convenient size and having relatively wide front and rear faces as compared with its depth or thickness as represented by the width of the gussets. However, as above indicated, for some commodities either much larger bags are desirable or bags which will present a thicker finished package so that if a gusseted type bag is used, the

total gusset width at each side of the bag will be quite 4 extensive. For example, for such purposes it may be de sirable to have a total gusset width up to fourteen inches or more, but this would mean that in a sewn end type of bag with single gussets, the upper inner corner fold of each gusset would be located about seven inches or more inwardly from the upper outer gusset edges. The difiiculties and disadvantages of such deeply formed single gussets in a sewn end bag will be apparent from inspection of Fig. 7. If instead of the double gusset there shown,

an equivalent total gusset width were provided for by a single gusset extending back to the dotted line at 55, then when the bag became filled and the material therein expands the gusset, there will be a strong outward force On the other hand, if a double gusset is used for such a sewn bag as largely shown by full lines in Figs. 6 and 11, then the innermost sewn portion of the gussets will occur at point 58 which is only about half as far inwardly of the bag as the point 57 and thus there will be much less tendency forthe inner portion of the gussets to be strained and pulled out, not only because of the more layers of paper.

location of the point 58, but also because the stitches through a double gusset at that point will render the e10: sure more secure since each stitch will pass through many Thus the stitch at point 59 in thecase of a three-ply bag with a double gusset, will Pass that it would be, difiicult or impossible to thus stitch af will be'noted that the various creases 14-18 inclusive,

through eighteen plies of paper in addition to the closure tape, Whereas if there were only a single gusset, such a stitch would only pass through twelve plies plus the closure tape. While'it would normally have been expected double gusset with so many plies, and to have the sewing machine properly pass over the necessary creases, yet, surprisingly it was found that no such difficulties occur in practice.

Perhaps the most important advantage of the double gussetas contained in the non-valve corners of sewn-end multiwall bags will be apparent from inspection of the corner of the filled bag as it appears in Fig. 6. Here it which form the gussets .12 and 13, will merge smoothly together and up under the closure tape without undue wrinkling, and instead of there being a deep heavily strained pocket at the middle of the gusset area just beneath the closure tape (as occurs with a deep single gusset) with the double gusset the outward middle fold 15 will occurat this point, giving substantial added capacity to the bag While aifording a substantially stronger corner.

The double gusset construction has the further important advantage that since the bag may bemade thicker (as measured between the front wide face and the rear face) it follows that for a bag of given volume, its width. is less and the length of the closure tape and line of stitching may be made substantially shorterwith consequent important savings of tape and thread. Also, the double gusseted construction facilitates making bags of.

large capacity .on standard tubingsmachines merely by altering the folding bars or blades to form two gussets at each edge of the tube instead of one. That is, assuming that it is desired to make a bag on a standard tubing machine which will have a larger total circumference than is'possible for singlegusseted bags on the machine, then' it will be apparent that by forming two gussets in each side of the tube, such bags having a larger circumference.

j and hence'of greater capacity-may be readily made on the machine. The double gusset construction also per mii gr ater flexibility in designing the overall dimensions of the package size, more easily to accommodate various palletizing problems.

In the usual bag tube length or blank having a single gusset, the notch which is located at the proposed valve corner terminates inwardly of the bag edge and at a location inwardly of the inner fold of the gusset. Thus the portion of the bag tube, which is cut away to form the notch, will not include any of the gusset. Accordingly when the notch corner is folded to form a conventional inturned valve the notch portion will then form an uuinterrupted valve flap or lip. However, if an attempt is made to provide a bag blank having a deep gusset with a suitable conventional notch, then in cutting the notch end of the bag blank, a part of the inner fold of the gusset will also be cut away with the result that the inner edge of the valve flap or lip will be cut away and the valve will not be secure and safe against popping out when the bag is filled, whether or not the valve flap as thus abbreviated is provided with a sleeve.

On the other hand, if as shown in Fig. 4 the bag tube blank edges are both provided with two small gussets as at 12, 13 (which may have a total width even greater than the single wide gusset) then the valve notch 20 may be formed without cutting away any of the inner fold portions of the gussets. These factors make it possible to design the valve in a multiwall sewn-end bag so that it will have a relatively small size as compared with the total gusset width. While with a single gusset in this general type of bag, the depth of the valve (measured from the top edge of the bag down to the lower crease as at 16b) must in general be approximately as great as the total gusset width, yet with a double gusseted bag of the type herein described, the minimum depth of the valve may be made equal to about one-half of the overall or total gusset Width (less say about to provide for the fold or crease lines such as 16, 18 and without clipping of same at the notch).

In case it is desired to provide an open mouth bag with double gussets at the sides and with a sewn-end bottom closure, it will be understood that each of the bottom corners will be of the same construction and appearance as shown in Fig. 6. And in the event such open mouth bags, after being filled, are provided with sewn-end clo sures, then both of the upper corners also will finally be of the same construction and appearance as the corner shown in Fig. 6.

Althoughone embodiment of the invention is herein disclosed for purposes of explanation, various further modifications thereof, after study of this specification, will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains. Reference should accordingly be had to the appended claims in determining the scope of the invention.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. A multiwall sewn end paper valve bag formed of a multiply tube having at its side a double gusset, both gusset formations of the double gusset at the valve corner on the tube being formed with extending portions, the end portions of one ofthe gusset formations of the double gusset being folded in to form a valve, the end portions of the remainder of the double gusset at the valve corner, including the extending portion thereof, being folded over into said valve.

2. A multiwall paper valve bag having a sewn end closure means and formed at its side with a double gusset, the end portions of one of the gusset formations at the valve corner being folded outwardly and then inwardly to form a valve, an upper corner portion of the remainder of the double gusset adjacent the valve being folded over and into said valve and there retained by the sewn closure means.

3. A multiwall sewn end paper valve bag formed of a multi-ply tube having at its side a double gusset, the gusset formations at the valve corner on the tube being both formed with extending portions, the end portions of one of the gusset formations of the double gusset being folded in to form a valve, and a sleeve contained in said valve, the end portions of the remainder of the double gusset formation, including the extending portion thereof, being folded over into said valve alongside said sleeve.

4. A multiwall paper valve bag having a sewn end closure means and formed at its side with a double gusset, the end portions of one of the gusset formations at the valve corner being folded outwardly and then inwardly to form a valve, an upper corner portion of the remainder of the double gusset adjacent the valve being folded over and into said valve and there retained by the sewn closure means, and a tuck-in type sleeve contained in said valve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,234,065 Vogt -t Mar. 4, 1941 2,635,803 Hartman Apr. 21, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 6485/27 Australia Mar. 18, 1927 456,380 Great Britain Nov. 9, 1936 

